Comment by Forrest Curo on 5th mo. 27, 2015 at 12:52pm

CH generally writes eloquent rants; but I wonder how much of your enthusiasm with this one is due to approval of his conclusion...?

Truly, faith in technology is a blood-drenched idolatry; but knowledge of God implies a valid basis for hope, for rejecting dogmatic assertions like: "There is nothing inevitable about human existence except birth and death. There are no forces, whether divine or technical, that will guarantee us a better future." 

And I've never thought of you as wanting people to "act with an urgency and passion that comprehends the grim possibilities ahead," although those possibilities are pretty grim all right.

Looking at what we can, in fact, hope to accomplish towards fending off those incoming 'grim possibilities', the best I've concluded so far is the importance of refusing to be fooled by the Powers & Principalities currently dominating human consciousness. That might prove contagious, or so I hope. But accomplishing that demands guidance from a certain divine 'force', not merely 'urgency and passion'.

Comment by Jim Wilson on 5th mo. 27, 2015 at 2:31pm

Typo Alert:  I notice I wrote 'Christ Hedges'.  I hope that is not a freudian type.  It should be 'Chris Hedges'.

Thanks,

Jim

Comment by Jim Wilson on 5th mo. 27, 2015 at 2:38pm

There, I think I've fixed it.  Ah, the eternal typo!!!

You make good points, Forrest.  I don't agree with everything that Hedges writes about progress, but I linked to it because I think it may be helpful to see how the idea of progress shaped Quaker history.  I think it had a major impact.  Fager does as well.  My tendency is to see the impact as negative, Fager's is to see it as positive.  Probably the truth lies in a less extreme take on the idea.

Jim

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